How To Eliminate Razor Burns And Irritation From Electric Shavers

Often, the occurrence of razor burns and skin irritations afflicts people who use razor blades to shave their facial hair and beards. Nevertheless, if you fall into a specific category of risks and despite your use of an electric shaver, you too could suffer the same irritation and razor burns.

So, the high-risk factors that may result in these skin afflictions include dry shaving, aggressive shaving, and the use of blunt blades. Your counteracting remedies to these risk factors would determine your probability of developing either condition or both.

Hence, through this article, you will come across the primary means by which you could prevent razor burns and irritation from electric shavers.

What are razor burns?

Occasionally, after a period of routine electric shaving, you may sprout a couple of reddish, nodular, and tender patches around your surrounding skin surface. These bumpy, red blotches are the razor burns. Razor burns would most likely affect you if you had rather sensitive skin, or you lacked a sense of proper shaving hygiene. For a diminished chance of developing these sore patches, you must diligently adhere to the correct shaving procedures, proper hygienic practices, and use a reliable electric shaver always.

What is shaving irritation?

Irritation is a distressing condition experienced by your cheeks and chin characterized by tender soreness, red erythema, and a burning sensation after shaving. Such skin irritation, along with razor burns, is often the result of using a poor shaver or applying the wrong shaving technique on your part. With this predicament or potential risk in mind, you need to know how you can mitigate `this troubling circumstance. Therefore, the following pointers can serve as essential guidelines for you to manage any shaving irritations and razor burns that would arise in the future:

How can you eliminate razor burns and shaving irritations?

Undertake your shaving two hours beforehand

When you adhere to this recommendation, any signs and evidence of shaving irritations have enough time to subside on their own before your engagements. During the shaving process, you will be subjecting the skin on which your beard grew to substantial amounts of stress and trauma. Eventual redness and burning tenderness usually arise from such a traumatic exposure. With the two-hour interval before any engagements, you will allow your skin ample time to relax without any intervention from yourself or a third party. As a result, the previous irritation that was imminent will invariably decrease.

Cleanse and exfoliate your facial skin

As a first step, you need to partake in a facial cleaning routine involving an intense cleanse, thorough washing, and extensive exfoliation. With exfoliation, you will rid your external skin layer of dead cells and infectious bacteria while raising ingrown hairs from deep layers to the surface concurrently. From light and gentle exfoliation, you should expect your pores to open up. As a result, this preparation is directly responsible for alleviating your razor burns.

Trim the challenging long hairs before engaging in the main shaving session

Along your lower mandible (jawline), frontal neck region and posterior chin, are often the locations of these nasty and elongated hairy tufts that need prior trimming before your general shaving. Using either a single blade or a pair of scissors, you can shear off these clusters reasonably quickly. Once done, you will have a relatively easy time using the electric shaver without the risk of hairy entanglements, trauma, and, ultimately, skin irritations.

Wash your skin and let it dry after cleansing

You should cleanse your skin before shaving always. However, after this wash, you need to wait a few minutes for the cleansed area of skin to dry before running the electric shaver upon it. This precaution is necessary to avoid the likelihood of an uneven surface from moist skin when you are shaving. Ideally, your dried skin should provide a smooth surface for its effortless subjection to the electric shaver. With a smooth ride, the chances of having an irritation are very minimal, if not nil.

Lather your face with the correct gel

When you decide to conduct a wet shaving session, ensure that your choice of gel or shaving foam does not cause your skin to counteract adversely on contact. Try as much as possible to avoid any lathering products that could be responsible for bringing about excessively dry skin. For you to be on the right track, you may have to sample, test, and try out these compounds before committing to them.

Apply the appropriate settings on your electric shaver

With a comfortable operational setting integrated into your electric shaver, you should have a reasonably straightforward chore at eradicating your beard. These settings provide you with control over specific shaving aspects such as speed and pressure, thereby allowing you to mitigate any probable skin irritations that may arise. Due to this capability, always ensure that you fix your electric shaver to your sensitive and less aggressive settings before you begin shaving.

Employ circular shaving maneuvers and motions

Firstly, you require a rotary electric shaver to implement this particular maneuver. With your rotating gadget, you must manipulate your actions in concentric motions while shaving your beard concurrently. Keep an eye on gently maintaining your circular motions into somewhat smaller sizes as you ensure the complete coverage of your bearded facial areas. As a result, you end up trapping the hairs that grow in a variety of directions, thus minimizing any risk of entanglement and irritation. You should be mindful of carrying out this process comprehensively to eradicate every little tuft within that facial region.

Actively relax your hair or beard

This process involves your active participation in the relaxation or softening of your hair before subjecting it to your electric shaver. Using your shaving brush, you can apply any of the hair-softening components such as gels, lotions, or cream to your hair and leave it to relax for a couple of minutes. After a few minutes, your hair should be sufficiently soft to allow for an effortless shave while keeping any potential razor burns at bay.

Exert only light pressure on the shaver

While shaving your face, always remember to manipulate your electric shaver with light and gentle pressure. On adhering to this suggestion, there will be no friction exerted on your skin that is characteristic of a higher shaving pressure. With this less friction, your probability of developing skin irritations subsequently vanishes. Note that you have to maintain this light application of force through the entire shaving exercise.

Beware of extremely close shaves

A very close shave would typically lead to the occurrence of skin irritation afterward due to the tendency to apply more significant pressure in trying to reach for the tiny hairs. If you make a habit of forcing through several excessively close shaves, you will undoubtedly catch some skin irritations. Avoid forcing your electric shaver onto your skin surface to achieve a close shave all the time.

Adjust your attack angles regularly

While straining to capture the last few wisps of hair on your shaven face, you could alter your approach into a more practical stance to avoid the risk of accidental irritations. For instance, with a different shaving strategy from alternative angles, you could achieve your objectives without causing any undue pressure or trauma to your skin. Also, for easier access to the hard to reach stragglers, you can apply a mild tug or stretch your underlying skin to bring those tufts within reach of your shaver.

Avoid aftershaves laden with alcohol

As a final act during your shaving process, the need to apply an aftershave may arise. However, in addition to disinfecting your skin, an alcoholic aftershave typically dries out the skin. Hence, it is essential to opt for alcohol-free aftershaves to avoid developing dry, taut skin that is more vulnerable to nasty irritations.

Practice clean shaving

One of the more direct causes of these nagging irritations after shaving is the presence of infective material on your electric shaver. Observing hygiene, even in your routine course of shaving, is equally imperative to keep the incidences of irritation away. After each shaving session, make sure that you clean your appropriate appliances in the correct and approved manner so as not to compromise hygiene.

Furthermore, note that it is advisable to rinse your electric shaver in plenty of lukewarm water as part of the sanctioned cleaning sequence. Once rinsed, you can let your shaver dry off and followed by its storage in a clean, dry locker or cabinet awaiting your next shaving session.

Refine your shaving technique

Unlike an electric shaver, a manual razor has the reputation of scraping at the surrounding skin surface repeatedly, leading to razor burns. However, if you switched to using a rotary electric shaver in a circular motion, you can easily reach the previously inaccessible hair tufts and stragglers.

Also, with the shaver’s concentric movement, you can get rid of most hairs from a variety of angles. Remember to apply only light pressure when running your electric shaver across your hairy skin to prevent trauma to the underlying layer. Additionally, you will find out that this entire maneuver is free from the risk of razor burns.

Replace your blades regularly

In addition to aggressive and dry shaving, another leading cause of razor burns is the use of blunt blades for your electric shaver. Be careful and pay close attention to the operating condition of your shaver, ensuring its edges are always in perfect working order. Ideally, your blades need to be as sharp as possible for a smooth and effortless shaving experience.

With a blunt edge, you are more likely to experience the anguish of pulled hair strands, torn hair roots, and grazed skin surfaces that lead to razor burns, eventually. Therefore, learn to replace your blunt blades promptly before your next usage of the electric shaver. While on the subject of blade replacement, do not overlook the significance of carrying out proper maintenance on your electric shaver. Your shaver must be in excellent working condition almost always.

Besides, you must be ready to substitute worn foils for functional replacements, ensure your battery power is sufficient for operating your shaver and lubricate the blades and foils when required. Without these technical corrections to your electric shaver, the gadget will keep nagging and tugging at your hair resulting in irritations to your skin.

Adhere to responsible and regular shaving

Ideally, when you shave your beard on an average of roughly thrice weekly, you stand a high chance of maintaining healthy skin despite the seemingly close intervals. Due to the reasonably substantial period between shaves, your skin has adequate time to heal or rejuvenate from your previous schedule. Moreover, your recently shaved hairs do not get an opportunity to grow into the long strands that necessitate advance trimming. As a result, you have no risk of suffering skin irritations typical of frequent and pressurized shaving.

Be mindful of your post-shaving conduct

After getting rid of your facial hair, thanks to your electric shaver, you need to follow a specific course of action to continue with the prevention of razor burns and irritations. In essence, during your post-shave period, you must follow these four steps:

Cleanse your face with cold water to get rid of any lotion chemicals or dirt clogging your pores. Besides, the coolness of the water has a soothing and calming effect on your post-traumatic skin.

Gently dry your face by patting using a clean towel. Do not rub the fabric across your face since the skin may still be fragile and could suffer an irritation.

Apply an alcohol-free aftershave. For the prevention of potential irritation from the scouring action and drying of your skin by alcohol-based aftershaves, you must stick to their bland alternatives. Beware of letting the chemically potent compounds come into contact with your shaved face.

Stay away from any warm water contact to your face. After shaving, you have to abide by this directive due to the fragile state of your recently shaved skin.

Conclusion

There you have it. From the above pointers, you must now understand the different ways by which you can prevent skin irritation and razor burns from your electric shaver. As outlined, the use of electric shavers comes with additional responsibilities to ensure your skin remains healthy, especially during the shaving process.

From the above narrative, three actions are core factors in causing razor burns and irritations. These inadvisable risks include your use of the electric shaver while applying significant manual pressure, shaving your facial hair under dry skin conditions, and the use of an electric shaver containing blunt blades.

Therefore, the onus is upon you to manage your exposure to potential risk factors and prevent the manifestation of skin irritation and razor burns. However, if you cannot apply the relevant mitigating measures responsibly, you could always grow a full beard.

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